HomeTown Competitiveness

HomeTown Competitiveness (HTC) was a rural community and economic development framework that Four Rivers Healthy Community helped bring to the Western Treasure Valley beginning in 2012.

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About the Program

HTC was a “come-back, give-back” approach to rural community building, developed by the Nebraska Community Foundation, the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, and the Heartland Center for Leadership Development, and delivered locally in partnership with Rural Development Initiatives (RDI). It organized local work around four pillars:

• Building Local Leadership
• Expanding Community Philanthropy
• Energizing Entrepreneurship
• Engaging Youth and Young Adults

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4RHC’s Role

HTC was introduced to the region at The Ford Family Foundation’s Economic Vitality Summit in November 2012, where Milan Wall of the Heartland Center for Leadership Development explained the framework to roughly 125 attendees at the Four Rivers Cultural Center. On November 15, 2012, the 4RHC board voted to pursue becoming the region’s HTC Steering Committee, and Four Rivers Healthy Community was adopted as the steering committee tying together six HTC “HomeTowns” across the Western Treasure Valley.

Local volunteers organized into pillar-based task forces at an HTC Opportunities Retreat in May 2013. On March 1, 2014, 4RHC formally took over HTC support duties from RDI.

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What It Led To

Two of 4RHC’s core programs grew directly out of HTC’s pillar work:

• The Engaging Youth and Young Adults pillar led to the Western Treasure Valley Emerging Leaders Summit, launched in November 2013.
• The Expanding Community Philanthropy pillar’s task force, which began exploring how to structure local giving in early 2013, led to the Four Rivers Community Foundation.